Need help recovering files from a dying HD

Hi all,

The hard drive on my son's Dell laptop has died. The good news: it's covered under the warranty. The bad news: my son has several school papers that he didn't back up and would like to recover. The drive sounds like it is spinning, but will not boot Windows in regular or safe mode, and gives the message:
"The following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe"

When I ran the Dell diagnostics the drive failed the confidence test, and the Dell tech confirmed that the drive is bad. Is there anything I can try to recover the needed files?

You could remove the drive frmo the laptop and connect it, using an adapter, to a working desktop system. If the drive can be recognized, you may be able to recover your files.

I was guessing that could be done, but I have zero experience with laptop drives. I'll ask the IT folks where I work if they have an adapter.

IDE To USB Adapters
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

Or download a Linux LiveCD distro to rescue your files. Knoppix is the usual benchmark for a Linux rescue CD but there are a number of other smaller ones, eg DamnSmallLinux (DSL) and RecoveryIsPossible (RIP).

You might find these two excellent freeware file recovery programs useful, they have been successful in recovering data for many of our members in the past:

PC Inspector

Restoration

For hard drives that have failed, I have heard that putting the drive in the freezer for a few hours and then hooking it up to a computer, can sometimes give you access to the drive for a short period of time..

Doc

yep the freezer trick does work make sure you put the hd in a ziplock bag first though not just directly into the freezer

There are more ways than just the freezer trick:

200 ways to recover a hard drive (PDF)

Hard drive revival

But these methods only apply to drives that have sufferered some sort of mechanical failure - it could make things worse on a drive that is mechanically sound.

Well, so far I have managed to use Knoppix to examine the drive. It has trouble mounting, but when I was able to look at the directories it said that the entire My Documents folder has no files or subfolders. I'd guess that the data is still on the disk but the directory got trashed when the drive failed. I tried a search for *.doc but except for a couple of files on the top level directory no files were found.

Just a final update for the curious. The replacement drive arrived from Dell (overnight!) and the laptop is back in operation. I bought an external USB hard drive enclosure and installed the bad drive in it. The drive was still inaccessible and kept making steady clicking sounds as it tried to access the files, so I have sadly concluded that it has suffered a hardware failure and is not recoverable (without spending many dollars for a specialized recovery service, anyway.) I am now planning to use the enclosure to make a portable back-up drive, so at least we'll be prepared next time.

You all know the moral of this story! :o

Indeed yes, most of us have learned that the hard way :(

As you have nothing to lose, other than your time, you could try some of those tricks in the articles that I linked to, you may just get lucky.

One thing I was able to do was "Ghost the drive" then open the Ghost image.
I was able to pull all the needed files off a image when I couldn't access the drive.